Propeller Head Plaza Technical and scientific discussion of amps, cables and other topics.

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RE: you're taking this far too seriously

Posted by mls-stl on June 5, 2007 at 21:01:23

In Reply to: Lots Of Words To Explain What's Happening posted by thetubeguy1954 on June 5, 2007 at 10:13:28:

> why do you fell you must treat those who disagree with your POV with such sarcasm?

You must have very selective eyesight. From what I read in this forum in particular, sarcasm is part of the lingua franca around these parts. There is certainly no shortage of subjectivists who spend a major portion of their time writing in that voice. You need to get out more!

> Yet a speakers break in IS verifiable and measureable via scientific methods!

Yet I haven't seen this verification. I've only seen personal stories presented so far.

As for the manufacturers not doing this, offhand I can't think of any other product, expensive or otherwise, that warns me to expect sub-par performance for the first 50 or 100 hours. I know many electronic manufacturers do a burn-in for a number of hours, but that is more to check for early failures. So, Bryston has time to do 100 hours of burn-in on their amps, but speaker makers don't?

An alternative thought is that speaker makers want you to become comfortable with the sound of the speakers. The buyer's expectation of improvement over a few weeks can help that person become emotionally invested in the sound of the product and reduce the chance of buyer's remorse. Encouraging buyers to think in terms of burn-in is an effective way of helping a buyer to transition to a new set of speakers that probably don't sound much like their old pair.

> Things will be an improving process for the speakers until an optimal point is reached,
> but as I stated before the speakers will continue to break-in naturally throughout its lifespan
> until the point of eventually needing a repair due to mechanic break down.

Actually you make my point very well. You continue to treat break-in as an always "improving" or at least a static situation. I find some irony that we have people who can tell the minutest difference in brands of wire and other tweaks (even frozen photos in some cases), but are perfectly comfortable with the variability of speakers over time. Taking a car as an example, your tires will lose some of their gripping ability long before they need repair from a break down. In a speaker, I'm not sure which of three alternatives you are arguing: 1) speakers naturally improve until they fail, 2) after 100 hours they don't change until they fail, or 3) they deteriorate gradually but we don't care until they fail.

> are now by claiming speakers do NOT "break in"...

Who's putting words in whose mouth now? I've stated multiple times that as a mechanical device speakers do break-in. However, I will state for the record that I think the 50 or 100 hour requirement is BS. The people who have looked closely at the change in physical parameters indicate that most of those changes in a new driver take place very quickly. From that point forward, I think most of what is heard as change is better explained by the listener's growing familiarity and comfort with the speaker.

We obviously have a disagreement on this issue, which is certainly fine by me. I have no strong urge to convert you or anyone else to my way of thinking. And how I think about speaker break-in has zero influence on whether I can play my rig and enjoy some music. (As I did tonight with some Emmylou Harris from 1975 and a Kinks album from '72. Both sounded just fine to me.)

Disagreements are de rigeur for this forum, so I'm a bit surprised by anyone who hangs here being overly sensitive.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Atma-Sphere Music Systems, Inc.

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